parshat Trumah
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Change Our Nature What is mine is mine and what is yours is yours and yet our sages say that this view eventually leads down the Sodomite behavior. We must train ourselfs in the art of giving.
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build a house for the sake of HaShem
They shall make for Me a Sanctuary, that I may dwell among them (25:8). Sefer HaChinuch writes that this is the source for the positive commandment “to build a house for the sake of HaShem... where we can offer our sacrifices to Him...” After a lengthy discussion, he concludes, “This mitzvah applies when the majority of Jews [dwell] in their Land, and it is one of those mitzvot that are not incumbent upon the individual, rather the community.” -
Donations Rather Than Whips and Scorpions
In its initial instructions to prepare for the construction of the Mishkan, the Torah refers four times to words that imply that Bnei Yisrael’s contributions would be voluntary (three times, “terumah” and, once, “yidvenu” (Shemot 25:2-3). The Mishkan was to be built with a feeling of volunteerism, not coercion.
